Cardinal by Louise Milligan

Author:Louise Milligan [Milligan, Louise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780522874617
Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing

The late Fiscalini, who was so greatly admired by Pell’s mother and had known the Cardinal since he was very young, clearly knew what he was dealing with. He knew it was Ridsdale and he knew it was kids. He knew that, because he’d heard it all before. He knew that, because he’d colluded with Mulkearns and moved Ridsdale from parish to parish. Not long after the farmer’s wife’s visit to Fiscalini, her sons came home with a letter apologising to the family, although Ridsdale made no admissions to abuse as such. ‘He wrote things like, “Poor me, I had a hard life. I had a hard upbringing,”’ said the farmer’s wife, who has since destroyed the letter.

When another mother disclosed to the farmer’s wife that Ridsdale had also abused her boys, the two families arranged to go to Ballarat to see Mulkearns—when they arrived they said they had ‘problems at Mortlake’.

‘Before we said anything more, Bishop Mulkearns replied “How am I to take the word of a child over one of my priests?”’ The mother said, ‘I think we were in his office for less than five minutes … After this, the four of us left the premises, went to the car and drove home in basic silence.’

Pell was not surprised by Mulkearns’ response. ‘If there was no contrary evidence or the evidence was pretty equivocal, people would be inclined to support the priest,’ he explained. ‘But for this to be said after so much evidence being presented on previous occasions is astounding.’

Another Mortlake mother known to the commission as ‘BAI’ says not long after Ridsdale arrived in Mortlake, her son came home, looking wan, and she asked him what was wrong. He blurted out: ‘I think our friend Father Gerry is gay,’ adding that Ridsdale had grabbed him and said he ‘wanted to feel his vibes’. She called the Bishop’s palace and spoke to Finnigan. BAI gave evidence to the Royal Commission that Finnigan told her ‘Bishop Mulkearns was not available but assured us there was no problem’. Finnigan now says he has no recollection of this, but agrees that if he did say it, it was ‘dishonest’. He was, he said, ‘just a small-time secretary’.

BAI went on to discover that Ridsdale had abused other children in the community eighteen months after she made that telephone call to Finnigan. She also spoke to the family doctor in the town about Ridsdale.

Furness pressed Pell on this: ‘We have now at this stage, in Mortlake, the family doctor being aware there was a problem with Ridsdale,’ Furness began, ‘a number of people knowing that there was a boy living in the presbytery with Ridsdale, and Father Finnigan being aware that one set of parents was concerned about the welfare of their child around Ridsdale … It’s getting close to common knowledge, isn’t it?’

His Eminence leaned forward to the microphone: ‘Certainly those people knew.’

‘At this stage, can I suggest, Cardinal,’ Furness put to Pell, ‘someone in the diocese within the Church should have accepted responsibility to do something about Ridsdale.

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